Monday, December 11, 2006

Western PA, Part II

More views of our trip to PA, including this KS-approved photo along the Alleghany River. This man of mystery, by the way, has requested a sweater. He found a photo of a Norwegian black metal band with a guy in a sweater. It's gray, has a wide neck & ribbing at the bottom edges, and is purl-side out. We picked out some yarn at Ithaca's Homespun Boutique (great yarn store, with fabric too, but apparently no website). But it will have to wait until after Christmas to start it. This was the rail trail along the Alleghany River. At the parking area, there was a sign warning "Hunters wear orange. So should you." There were other people on the trail without orange on, so we set off & walked south a mile or so. Until we heard the first few gunshots. Then we headed back to the parking lot.

On the way back to Binghamton, we stopped by Austin, PA, site of the Austin Dam. This dam was built by a lumber company. The company hired an engineer to design the dam, but his design was going to cost too much, so they didn't make the dam quite so thick, or seat it quite so deeply. In 1911, it broke. The town was downstream of the dam, with huge piles of logs for the lumber company in between. The lumber company had argued that at least if the dam broke, the piles of logs would slow down the water. Instead, the town got a rush of logs & water. The disaster was a major impetus for Pennsylvania to pass legal requirements on dam engineering. What I really like about the Austin dam is how it's still standing right there, apparently just how it was at the end of the day on September 30, 1911, an unplanned monument.

Now, must get back to working on the "backyard leaves" scarf from "Scarf Style."